Perjury is lying under oath.
Under federal law, prosecutors must prove the person knows the statement is inaccurate, intends to make a false statement, and that the lies are material to the case at hand.
In 1973 the US Supreme Court said that shrewd or narrow answers calculated to evade are not perjury as long as they are truthful.
Perjury is a crime on both local and federal levels.
Federal law also prohibits making false statements on federal forms or to federal officers.
Perjury cases account for less than 1 percent of federal prosecutions and less than 10 percent of state prosecutions.
Perjury charges usually arise in conjunction with other crimes and are brought in civil cases far less frequently than in criminal cases.
Most perjury cases involve documents.
Federal perjury prosecutions average 130 per year.
In October 1998, 115 people were serving sentences for perjury in federal prisons.
Under federal law perjury and false statements are punishable by an undetermined fine, up to five years in prison or both.
Federal sentences average 27 months.
Other perjury punishments have involved home detention, community service, giving up a medical license, removal from public office, and prison sentences of 60 days, four months, and two years.
In the O.J.
Simpson case Mark Fuhrman was charged with three years probation and fined $200.
Perjury convictions brought prison sentences of three years to Alger Hiss and six years in a terrorism case and for a confessed killer earlier cleared of his crime.
